Well all reports as of today (22/6/20) show that despite all the new legislation and alleged new rules imposed concerning the sale of dog meat and dog meat consumption; the Yulin festival IS STILL CONTINUING.
All we can do at this time is supply you with a few media links relating to this:
WAV Comment – Better late than never ! – but we shall see exactly what benefit the animals get from this; or again is it just EU Yukspeak for actually doing nothing ?
EP Committee of Inquiry mandated to deeply investigate animal transports
19 June 2020
News
Today the European (EU) Parliament approved the setting up of a Committee of Inquiry on live transport.
This is the first Inquiry approved by the EU Parliament in this legislative mandate and the third one approved since its establishment. The Committee will examine the responsibilities of the EU Commission and the EU Member States in implementing and enforcing the Union rules. Such a committee will also be an important step towards making the revised Transport Regulation an effective tool to protect the welfare of the animals transported within and outside the EU.
With 605 out of 689 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in favourthe EU Parliament approved the formation of a Committee of Inquiry to look into the implementation and enforcement of the Council Regulation 1/2005 (Transport Regulation) across the EU and beyond. This is good news for the millions of animals that every year are transported alive in critical conditions, as revealed by more than 200 investigations since 2007. Also the EU Commission, that in the past three years conducted several audits on animal welfare during transport, revealed major animal welfare problems and low levels of compliance.
The call for this Committee of Inquiry on live transport came from 183 MEPs who were renewing the request already made in 2018. At that time, the Conference of Presidents concluded that an Implementation Report was more appropriate to deal with this matter than a Committee of Inquiry. Voted for by the EU Parliament in February 2019, that Report highlighted key issues to be addressed and, among others issues, it recommended the EU Parliament to establish a Committee of Inquiry on the welfare of animals during transport for a more in-depth analysis.
Today with its favorable vote, the Plenary agreed on the setting up of such a committee to assess the major barriers currently impeding the enforcement of the Transport Regulation, as well as examining the responsibilities of the EU Commission and the EU and Member States in enforcing and implementing the rules.
“Since its foundation, Eurogroup for Animals has been working on live transport with the EU institutions and stakeholders across the EU, and today we welcome this Parliamentary decision – says Reineke Hameleers, CEO of Eurogroup for Animals. This Committee will conduct a long overdue in-depth investigation into the system and it will contribute to making the new Transport Regulation an effective tool to protect the welfare of the animals transported within and outside the EU ”.
Indeed, such a Committee will also be instrumental in the framework of the revision of the Transport Regulation – announced in May by the EU Commission – by highlighting shortcomings of the current legislative framework that should be addressed by a revision.
Today, there are over 50,000 more reasons to be outraged and appalled by the horrendous conditions animals are subjected to during live exports. The latest travesty involves the ongoing plight of Animals Australiato save 56,000 sheep from this barbaric practice.
“As many of you know, new laws designed to protect animals from suffering on board live export ships in the searing summer months came into effect two weeks ago,” noted a post on the organization’s Facebook page earlier this week. “Sadly, they have just failed their first test, with the industry regulator granting an exemption that will allow thousands of sheep shipped in boiling conditions.”
Animal’s Australia and their legal team secured an urgent trial in the Federal Court in a bid to challenge the decision-making process. Sadly, yesterday, their case was dismissed, leaving the sheep victim to the live export process where they will either cruelly die on the ship or be slaughtered for their meat when they arrive in the Middle East.
“Animals Australia accepts the Federal Court’s decision, but we are, of course, disappointed. Our position remains that had the Department had all available expert evidence before it, this exemption would not have been granted,” Animal Australia’s Lyn White said in a statement, noting that the reason the legislation was introduced was to ensure commercial interests were no longer put before animal welfare. “There are no exceptional circumstances that justify knowingly putting 50,000 sheep at risk of heat stroke.”
The June 1st halt in live sheep shipments to the Middle East was implemented based on extensive scientific reviews that concluded that measures cannot be taken to sufficiently mitigate the risk of heat stress during June.
“The summer halt is in line with the industry’s own northern summer moratorium. They cannot have it both ways; animal welfare either matters or it doesn’t,” concluded White. Applying for an exemption that will result in inescapable and inevitable animal suffering indicates that animal welfare does not matter to them in this case.
The fight to save sheep and other animals from having to experience the horrors of live export in the summer must continue. Their lives depend on it!
Please urge the Australian Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud, to demand that Australian laws be put in place to stop animals being subjected to live exports now! SIGN HERE!
You can help all animals and our planet by choosing compassion on your plate and in your glass. #GoVeg
Time and again, we are disappointed, and frustrated, and gobsmacked by what this industry is allowed to get away with. Unfortunately, the Government (and the very elected politicians who fought for those basic safeguards) backflip whenever the carrot of live exporter profits follows the stick of animal cruelty.
But there are some silver linings to this dark cloud.
Every incident that happens, and every action you take, is another chip away at this industry, adding to its horror public track record, of decades of repeated evidence of suffering and cruelty.
We had a measure of success in the northern summer ban, a measure we could not possibly have foreseen before the notorious Awassi Express journeys of 2017 blasted a long-overdue spotlight on the routine heat stress, suffering and death this industry was willing to inflict upon Australian sheep.
There were no plans or intentions to include an independent observer on this ship, but thanks to your efforts, there is one on board now. With your support, we wrote to politicians to urge attention to this issue, we kept phoning and emailing the department, and we saw multiple people speaking out in favour of our call (including the WA Premier himself).
While we sadly weren’t able to stop the ship from leaving, at least there’s someone on board now who can record the consequences of this absurd decision. We’ll be keenly awaiting their reports, images and video evidence.
And now we can also let you know that we’ve submitted a formal animal welfare complaint to the West Australian Government. The evidence of the suffering these sheep are likely to endure is overwhelming, and we believe it may be in breach of WA’s animal protection legislation.
This ship should never have been allowed to leave.
This has been an extraordinary chain of actions and decisions by the regulator, and we will continue to work over the coming weeks and months to find out how it has unfolded and to ensure it can never happen again.
Finally, regardless of the outcome for this shipment, we believe that – much like those five disastrous journeys of the Awassi Express in 2017 – this latest debacle may be a turning point for this disaster-plagued industry.
The failure of the federal government to uphold even its own regulations, despite its knowledge of the dangers;
The failure of live exporters to adhere to their own promised moratorium, introduced as a last-ditch measure to avoid a total ban;
And the strange chain of events that led to this surprise exemption decision, may prove to be the final blow to any remaining public trust or confidence in the industry or the regulators.
Industries cannot survive without community support, and the RSPCA believes this latest live export fiasco is likely to have significant long-term consequences for the industry, and may in fact expedite the inevitable end to live sheep exports.
As with Animals Australia, the RSPCA Australia, and (here) the crew at Stop Live Exports.org, we are united in our support for everyone who is fighting this disgusting trade in sentient beings.
Below; in ‘What to do now’; SLE have given a series of things which you can do to follow up the Al Kuwait shipment which took place yesterday. The vast majority of good people are against the abusers who undertake this business; and they know public opinion is against them vastly.
We currently are still fighting live animal exports here within the EU and there is also the case of live calves being exported by the Scottish, via the English port of Ramsgate.
Decent people around the world are wholeheartedly against this abusive trade in live animals. We are proud to be pert of the team and do what we can to support the innocent animals that need us more than ever.
Please take actions as detailed in the ‘what to do now’ links below. Phone, e mail, anything, but please do something. The sheep are on the way to terrible deaths in a foreign land now; and sadly there is nothing much which can now be done to help them. But politics is politics; and politicians need your votes and your support. Please don’t support any political parties or politicians who support this trade – and let them know it ! – they can run but they cannot hide. They will always be remembered as abusive supporters of an abusive trade. Get them our of their positions; and soon.
Regards Mark
Dear Mark;
As you may or may not be aware, we held a flash protest down at the port yesterday evening as the Al Kuwait loaded 35,000 sheep bound for Kuwait, 17 days after the 1 June deadline. If you were able to make it down there to join us, thank you. If the notice was too short or you didn’t hear about it (or you’re in another state or territory), we’re sorry – due to the CoViD19 restrictions, we had to apply for a police permit and were also awaiting the results fo Animals Australia’s federal court action to apply for an injunction to stop the ship loading.
All pictures – Renee Denys
On 2 June, an exemption to the Northern Summer Trade moratorium was denied to Emanuel Exports’ sister company, Rural Export & Trading WA (RETWA), by Tina Hutchence, Assistant Secretary to the Live Export branch of the federal Department of Agriculture (the branch that acts as the “Independent” Regulator of the trade). A second application was received by RETWA, and on Saturday 13 June, an exemption was granted by David Hazlehurst, Deputy Secretary of the federal Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE).
How this all came about and the legislation and rules for exemptions is a long and convoluted story I won’t go into here, but needless to say, the federal government legislated the northern summer ban to offer some protection to sheep being sent into the Middle East, with a ban on shipping sheep there from 1 June to 14 September inclusive. They then proved that legislation useless, by granting an exemption to RETWA’s parent company, Kuwaiti Livestock Transport & Trading (KLTT), despite there being no exceptional circumstances to merit such an exemption.
WHAT TO DO NOW ?
At the rally, we asked you to do six things:
1/ Email Tina Hutchison who denied the exemption, and say THANK YOU for upholding the legislation and looking after the welfare of the sheep by denying the original application for an exemption:
tina.hutchison@agriculture.gov.au
2/ Email David Hazlehurst and let him know what you think of his decision, and what a mockery it has made for the Summer Trade Ban Order 2020. Be firm, honest, but please do not use threats or physical violence or resort to name-calling.
35,000 sheep will be heading out of 21 degrees Fremantle and into 45+ degree Kuwait to have their throats cut whilst fully conscious after it had already been found ELEVEN days ago that exporting them after the deadline posed significant risks to their welfare:
david.hazlehurst@agriculture.gov.au
3/ Have a chat with David Littleproud. Whilst it was his decision to grant the exemption, and it was under his watch the more restrictions to the trade were introduced, we feel he should know how the public feels about this horrendous decision by the Deputy Secretary:
Parliamentary Office: (02) 6277 7190
David.Littleproud.MP@aph.gov.au
He also has THREE electoral offices in Queensland:
(07) 46622715
(07) 4622 7166
(07) 4661 2494
4/ Email the CEO of the Australian Livestock Exporters Council (ALEC), Mark Harvey-Sutton.
ceo@livexcouncil.com.au
Tell him to get a real job that doesn’t involve subjecting animals to pain and suffering.
5/ Leave feedback on the DAWE website. Oops – that page has been removed since this yesterday… we wonder if the phone number still works. Call 1800 900 090
6/ Contact your local federal MP and all 12 WA Senators (or Senators in your state or territory). Go HERE,
scroll down and enter your postcode. That will bring up your local MP and all your Senators – click on the email icon, or call them if you prefer that.
Let them know what you think – they are elected to represent YOU.
Thank you for your ongoing support, and if you are not a member or donor yet, you can make a one-off, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual donation via GiveNow by credit card or direct debit and the fees are about 1/10 of PayPal. Regular small donations are of the greatest assistance to our campaign. Any donation over $25 in a year counts as membership and we’ll send you some stickers if you’re a new member.
A HUGE thank you to everyone who has donated or taken action in response to our legal fight against the export of young calves from Scotland.
The court hearing for our Judicial Review has now been set for 4th August. But, yesterday,
The Scottish Government applied for a delay.
We want to stop animals suffering NOW. So we’ve submitted an objection to this outrageous attempt to play for time – and the court may decide for or against a delay in the next few days.
In the meantime, let’s keep up the fight for justice for calves. If you haven’t already done so, please take action here.
URGENT – Take action now and e mail the Scottish Government:
Thank you to everyone whotook a stand on Sunday for the 5th annual International Awareness Day against live exports. Not least to Compassion’s fantastic patron and stalwart animal welfare campaigner, Peter Egan, who led our UK day of action.
Social media was awash with #BanLiveExports, and policy makers around the globe felt the heat of public opinion against this appalling trade. See how the world united for animals on 14th June.
A DAMNING REPORT ON EU LIVE EXPORTS…
In a new report about the export of EU animals by sea, the European Commission documents sub-standard vessels, inadequate checks on ships and poor legal accountability. It also identifies illegally high temperatures in trucks, and under-reporting of animals who are unfit to travel.
Compassion, and other NGOs, have been raising these concerns for years. Now, finally, the Commission has acknowledged that this trade is failing to protect animals. Find out more here.
… AND PRESSURE IS BUILDING
40 MEPs have now joined Compassion and over 35 other NGOs to campaign for an immediate halt to EU live exports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, due to concerns about legal compliance, the Dutch Agriculture Minister has stopped all live exports where a 24-hour rest stop outside the EU is required. Exports will only restart if transporters can guarantee animals will be rested.
This follows persistent campaigning by CIWF Netherlands and other organisations. It sets an important precedent, and adds to the pressure for urgent European Commission action against live exports.
WAV Comment – money before welfare – a global problem.. We stand with Animals Australia throughout in their fight to speak up for those who have no voice. Lets hope the Australian elections are very soon.
Mark, I so wish I was contacting you with better news…
Despite the extraordinary efforts of our legal team, who worked day and night over the past three days, we were unable to get the exemption granted to ship 50,000 sheep to Kuwait overturned by the Federal court.
I know how you will be feeling at this news. The deepest sense of injustice, of betrayal. The northern summer ban that was introduced to ensure exporter interests were never again put before the welfare of animals, has failed at its first test.
As you know, commitments were made, only to be broken. Laws enacted, only to see exemptions granted to those laws. Sheep who should be spared, will now be shipped into the extreme heat of a Middle East summer.
I’m sure you may be wondering, how did things go so fundamentally wrong? The answer to that question will start a conversation that animals desperately need us to have.
It would be easy to blame the regulator or the government or the exporter — but their actions are based on and influenced by one underlying factor — a legal system that denies animals raised for food the same compassion, moral consideration and legal protection as other animals in human care.
As a result, vulnerable beings who feel fear and pain are decreed property, items to trade, lives to be bought and bartered, warm bodies to be brutalised.
This cannot be allowed to continue. For when profits have the power to impair our compassion — it is not only animals who suffer, our own humanity is violated and diminished.
Throughout history there have been ‘moments in time’; occurrences that are so at odds with our truth, with our humanity, with our potential, that we are forced to look within and ask, ‘how did we come to this place?’ Inevitably, the answers sought and found fuelled needed transformation.
Let us commit to making the decision to grant this exemption and ship these sheep to Kuwait one of these ‘moments in time’. Let it be the catalyst for a conversation that as a society we need to have — as to how deeply and profoundly programmed we are to think about animals raised for food differently — and the consequences animals bear as a result.
These sheep were not considered by authorities for who they are — vulnerable beings whose well-being is dependent on human kindness and consideration. They became numbers on applications and on spread sheets.
In the granting of this exemption, we will never see a more striking example of the legacy of an inherited belief system that deems animals who are eaten as less deserving of our care and protection.
My commitment to these animals and to you today Mark, is to work even harder to create the shift in human thinking needed to bring all animals into our circle of compassion.
While today has been a difficult day, it makes me ever more grateful for your faith and support, for your presence in this world, and for the compassion and kindness that resides in your heart.
We can and will pave that pathway to a kinder world together.
I (Mark) have personally been involved with live calf exports from the UK for around the past 30 years. You can see more about this at https://serbiananimalsvoice.com/about-us/
Like ALL live animal exports it is a disgusting trade which is operated by people who are even more disgusting. Ten years ago I produced a formal report on the calf trade from the UK to Europe, which you can review via the above link.
Here is the link to just one of the undercover investigations taken at that time; and which formed one part of the investigation report which was presented to the EU. As you can see; clear evidence that the ‘rules’ for ‘protecting’ the calves was being blatantly ignored; information which was presented to the EU, who; as always; did nothing about it.
Nothing much has changed ten years later; the EU disregards all the evidence presented to them, whilst drumming on about how good they are for ‘welfare’. Don’t believe it; they are useless and will do whatever they can to delay and postpone making changes that are beneficial to the animals. For the EU the facts are simple; it is financial gain well ahead of animal welfare; despite all the yukspeak that comes from their lips.
We battled at Dover to stop the calf exports for so long; wonderful people fighting at the right, compassionate end of the cause; I was glad to know them all and to be able to call them all true friends; and to be united in fighting the disgusting trade of animal abuse. More recently (as you can read in the article); the calf trade changed from Dover just round the coast to Ramsgate. It has been operated there by a Dutchman named ‘Onderwater’; who operates an ex Soviet battle tank carrier called the ‘Joline’ to get the animals across to the port of Calais in France; from where they continue their miserable journey South within Europe.
Here is a picture of the Joline – ex Soviet battle tank carrier now turned into a live animal transport ship !
When we get news about the Scottish court case you will be the first to hear. I want this to be a welfare victory for so many reasons; I cannot even start to describe. I also want the victory for John; who fought for so long against this vile and disgusting business.
By supporting the dairy industry – milk, cheese, cream etc; you are supporting this kind of animal abuse. Young male calves, of no use to the industry as milk machines; ripped from their mothers side at just a few hours old; crammed onto trucks and exported for hours and hours to die in a foreign land. It is a sick business, and the sooner you distance yourself from everything that is involved with t, the better. Baby cows should be with their mums – simple as that.
Scottish government defends ‘illegal’ live calf exports as court battle looms
The Scottish government is going to court to defend the practice of sending live baby calves to Europe, even though Boris Johnson has previously backed a ban on live exports after Brexit.
Experts say Scotland’s calf exports are illegal because journeys breach an eight-hour time limit, and they have launched a court battle to try to halt the exports.
It comes as the findings of an investigation suggest paperwork on last year’s shipments submitted to authorities was misleading. Opponents of the trade suspect it was an attempt to evade a potential future ban.
About 5,500 very young male calves discarded by dairy farmers each year are sent abroad, particularly to Spain and even north Africa, where they are fattened and slaughtered as beef or veal.
By law, journeys over eight hours are not permitted for unweaned calves unless, after nine hours of travel, they are given a one-hour break for rest, water and “if necessary”, food.
In practice, the animals – still dependent on their mothers’ milk – are not unloaded after the first nine hours, according to campaign group Compassion in World Farming (CiWF).
Instead they are transported from Scotland to northern France through the port of Ramsgate for up to 23 hours without food – in breach of the law on journey limits, it’s claimed.
CiWF has launched judicial review proceedings against the Scottish government, saying that if it wins, British live calf exports could not continue in their current form, which “could spare thousands of unweaned calves every year from suffering on exhausting journeys”.
But live exports form a large source of income for Scottish farmers, and Holyrood is fighting back, trying to get the case dropped.
The UK government’s Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is also thought to be planning to defend live exports if the case goes ahead.
The prime minister has previously condemned live exports, having pledged – before the Brexit vote – that leaving the EU would allow the UK to ban the trade, which European law did not permit.
In 2018, Mr Johnson condemned the trade as “barbaric”, writing in The Sun of the “nightmare” journeys animals endure: “They are terrified. They slip and slide in their own excrement as the boats buck in the swell. They travel for more than 100 hours in conditions of such extreme discomfort that campaigners have been protesting for decades.
“The animals know they are going to die – and they are going to die far from home.”
The Scottish parliament has previously debated banning exports of live A spokeswoman said: “It is most unlikely that breeding is the reason for more than 3,400 two- to six-week-old male calves being exported, given the numbers being exported per sailing, the conditions in which they are exported, and the age of the calves in question; these calves are clearly not of breeding age.
“We are worried that the decision to begin classifying these exports for ‘breeding’ may be an attempt to evade any potential future ‘fattening’ or ‘slaughter’ export ban.”
In a reply to CiWF, seen by The Independent, rural economy minister Fergus Ewing wrote: “I can assure you that there was no intention to mislead and that officials will sense-check any future data of this kind.”
He added: “Our knowledge of the trade permitted us to deduce that the likely purpose was fattening.
And the 2019 Conservative election manifesto promised to end “excessively long journeys for slaughter and fattening”.
But CiWF has discovered that official logs on every sailing last year bar one listed the purpose of the export as “breeding” – so the shipments would be exempt from any ban.
A spokeswoman said: “It is most unlikely that breeding is the reason for more than 3,400 two- to six-week-old male calves being exported, given the numbers being exported per sailing, the conditions in which they are exported, and the age of the calves in question; these calves are clearly not of breeding age.
“We are worried that the decision to begin classifying these exports for ‘breeding’ may be an attempt to evade any potential future ‘fattening’ or ‘slaughter’ export ban.”
In a reply to CiWF, seen by The Independent, rural economy minister Fergus Ewing wrote: “I can assure you that there was no intention to mislead and that officials will sense-check any future data of this kind.”
He added: “Our knowledge of the trade permitted us to deduce that the likely purpose was fattening and production, although the possibility remains that certain of the transported calves may have been later used for breeding.”
The Independent has approached the Scottish government for a comment.
A spokesman for Defra said the government would be launching a public consultation in due course on “excessively long journeys for slaughter and fattening” – which it pledged at the election to end.
The government held a call for evidence in 2018 on controlling live exports for slaughter and to improve animal welfare during transport after Brexit, but Defra says the new consultation will be wider in scope.
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